Comment by zeroCalories

Very sad, have some of these types in my own family. I agree with the assessment that this is a form of emotional coping. All of these conspiracy theories are strangely comforting, despite how apocalyptic they might seem. Not only can you externalize all blame, they are fun to think about, they have a very sticky epistemology, and a high degree of consistency that lets you feel superior to the non-believers. It's actually very hard to debate someone that's really into flat earth, since there is always some esoteric argument about physics, and the conspiracy always goes deeper. You find this type of thinking everywhere, but somehow we've gotten the most comically extreme versions as mainstream beliefs now.